Eight House Feng Shui also named Eight Mansions Feng Shui is one of the easier and more popular methods used to determine the good and bad locations of a dwelling, to analyse whether you are compatible with the house and to find out your favourable and unfavourable personal directions that promote productivity at work and in relationships, foster good health and successful academic pursuits.

There are many aspects to Eight House Feng Shui which has sophisticated formulae for recognising sha (dangerous) qi (Ch’i) from any given direction, observing bad land structure in specific location based on the house trigram and Eight House Water Method to name but a few.

The easiest form is calculating your own Life Gua number according to the year you are born thus identifying your four favourable and four unfavourable directions as well as identifying your house trigram and locating the four auspicious and four inauspicious locations within your home.

In Eight House Feng Shui, a dwelling is divided into nine palaces (sectors), one being in the centre and eight of which correspond to the eight magnetic directions. These palaces are north, south, east, west (cardinal directions), northeast, southeast, southwest and northwest (inter-cardinal directions).

Each of the eight magnetic directions holds a different kind of qi (energy) which will influence the respective palace and the person living in it either favourably or unfavourably. In other words, the harmonics of the qi from a given direction can be in harmony or out of tune to the harmonics of your own life Gua.

In order to find which qi resides in which palace of the house, we must find out which direction the house / apartment / office faces.

How do I know which direction my house /apartment faces?

It is easy if your front door (or frequently used door) happens to be located on the same side as the facing of the house but this is not a standard rule to determine the facing of a home.

Michael Hanna wrote an extensive article on how to determine the facing and sitting directions of a property. This is an article that one should read before embarking on applying any Feng Shui formula. I shall not repeat this topic here but please follow this link for more details: property

What are the good and bad locations of my house?

The formula is easy enough but we must first find out the trigram (Gua) of the property.

First, let’s look at the eight types of houses in the Later Heaven Ba Gua.

There are eight types of houses named according to their sitting position. For example, if your house faces 178º south, this will make the house a Kan house. It sits north and faces south.

The eight types of houses are:

A Li House sits south and faces north.
A Chen House sits east and faces east.
A Sun House sits southeast and faces northwest
A Kan House sits north and faces south.

A Chien House sits northwest and faces southeast
A Tui House sits west and faces east
A Gen House sits northeast and faces southwest
A Kun House sits southwest and faces northeast.

These eight types of houses are further grouped into two groups – East House and West House. Their correlation within the group derives mainly from the I-Ching, (also spelt Yi-Jing) characterisation of the ‘six relatives’ and also from the interactions of the five phases (elements).

East House Group

Li House
Chen House
Sun House and
Kan House

West House Group

Chien House
Tui House
Gen House and
Kun House

In general, the four associated directions of the house trigrams are the four favourable locations.

For example, the four good locations of an east group Li house are South, North, Southeast and east and a west group Chien House are Northwest, Southwest, Northeast and West.

The four auspicious locations are named Sheng Chi, Tien Yi, Yan Nian and Fu Wei. The four inauspicious locations are named Ho Hai, Wu Kwei, Lui Sha and Chueh Ming.

** Please note that the names given for the locations are mere symbols. It does not represent that if your door is located in the Chueh Ming direction or location there will be calamities or that if your room is located in the Five Ghosts location, you will experience apparitions.

The four auspicious directions that will carry different kinds of good fortune and their meanings are:

1. Sheng Chi (The breath of Life)
The energy from this direction attracts prosperity, vitality, respectability and reputation. This is a good location for your front door.Personally – this is your best magnetic direction. Locate your work desk in your office or study to face this direction and strive to face this direction when conducting or doing anything important, e.g. planning, interview, business negotiation.2. Tien Yi (Heavenly Doctor)
This magnetic direction fosters good health. Persons under this influence are patient, agreeable, appreciative as well as secure and confident in themselves. This is a good position to place your stove.Personally – this would be a good direction for the bed head to point when locating beds if health is the objective. (The crown of your head should point to this direction when you are lying down).3. Yan Nian meaning “longevity and relationships”
This direction enhances the quality of relationships in the family, promotes longevity and self sufficiency. This is a good palace for the master bedroom.Personally – this is a good direction for adolescents going through growing pains. For those who work in human resources or are into networking, this is the direction to face when working at one’s desk.

4. Fu Wei meaning “overall harmony, peace and stability”
This energy brings about peace. This location is considered a good site for an altar.

Personally – this is a good direction for meditation and for very young children to face or to sleep with their head pointing to this direction when they are lying down. If you are into self development, this is the direction where your bed head should be.

The four inauspicious directions and locations that must be strenuously avoided are:

5. Ho Hai (Obstacles and mishaps)
This energy is considered the least harmful but has been known to lead to all kinds of intermittent difficulty and frustration. Persons under this influence may tire easily and feel insecure. For those with personal Guas that are different from their partner’s, this direction can be used to compromise on the sleeping direction.6. Wu Kwei (Five Ghosts)
This energy generates the kind of mischief that leads to fire, loss of income, and burglary. It also causes quarrels and misunderstanding at home and at work. Avoid placing the stove here or cures will have to be implemented.7. Lui Sha (Six Killings)
This direction represents scandals, missed opportunities, legal entanglements and illnesses. Persons under this influence may experience fitful sleep, lack of focus, lethargy in their everyday being and may even become alcoholic. A bathroom or storeroom placed in this sector will suppress its negative effects.8. Chueh Ming (Disaster)
This is the most harmful and dangerous direction. This energy can cause poor finance and unproductive career. Persons under this influence can experience difficulties in every endeavour and can cause depression, mental illness, accidents and suicidal feelings. Every care should be taken to avoid facing this direction.

Where are the good and bad locations in my house?

The eight types of houses and their respective good and bad locations are listed below.

A Kan House faces 157.5º to 202.5º south
This is one of the two ideal eastern directional houses as it sits in a good location and faces a good direction for an east group person.

A Chen House faces 247.5º to 292.5º west

A Sun House faces 292.5º to 337.5º northwest

A Li House faces 337.5º to 22.5º north
This is one of the two ideal eastern directional houses as it sits in a good location and faces a good direction for an east group person.

A Chien House faces 112.5º to 157.5º southeast

A Kun House faces 22.5º to 67.5º northeast
This is one of the two ideal western directional houses as it sits in a good location and faces a good direction for a west group person.

A Tui House faces 67.5º to 112.5º east

A Gen House faces 202.5º to 247.5º southwest
This is one of the two ideal western directional houses as it sits in a good location and faces a good direction for a west group person.

Am I compatible with my house?

Like houses, people are also divided into east and west groups. Ideally, an east group person should live in an east type house and a west group person should live in a west type house which would enable you to make good use of the favourable sectors of the house. The orientation of the walls of the house will also allow you to sit facing one of your good directions.

To know whether the house is orientated in your favour or not, we need to find out your Gua number.

WHAT IS MY GUA NUMBER?

To find out which group you belong to, we need to know your gender and the month and year of your birth. The table below offers you a fast reference of your birth Gua.

Important Note: According to the Chinese solar calendar (Hsia Li), if you are born between January and 5th February of the Gregorian calendar, you are considered to have been born the year before in the Chinese solar calendar. Have a look at the chart below and you will see what I mean.

If you are a Gua 1 person, you belong to the east group type and your four favourable personal directions are southeast for wealth, east for health, south for relationships and north for self development. You should try to avoid the southwest and northwest at all costs and northeast and west if you can.

Eight Mansions work on your personal four favourable and four unfavourable directions according to your Gua number. For example, the location of doors plays an important role in the determining the quality of Feng Shui experienced in a property.

Ensure that your front door is orientated to match your most auspicious (Sheng Chi) direction. When you are looking to buy a house, office or an apartment, look for one whose main door faces this direction.

You will also find it beneficial if the doors that lead into your bedroom, study or office also face one of your personal auspicious directions. Refer to the chart above for your most auspicious (Sheng Chi) direction. For example, if you are a Gua 1 person, your Sheng Chi direction is southeast, Gua 2 Sheng Chi direction is to the northeast and so on.

Orientate your work desk in your study or office to face one of your personal good directions. Sheng Chi direction is the best for work but if you are unable to manoeuvre your desk to this direction, facing one of the good directions will do just fine.

Arrange your work desk so that your child sits facing one of their good directions when studying at home in the library or study. Teenagers studying for their exams should face their Sheng Chi direction whereas young children should face their Fu Wei direction.

Sleep with the bed head orientated to your Yan Nian or Tien Yi direction if possible; otherwise one of your four auspicious directions will do if you are limited by space and the orientation of the walls.

The gua numbers of my spouse/partner and mine are different?

The facing of the front door should favour the bread winner.

What if both spouses work? In this case either the direction of the front door or the sleeping direction should favour the spouse whose Gua opposes the house’s trigram.

Directions are more important than location.

Most of us do not have the luxury to find the house that suits our gua and finding the right house gets more complicated when both spouses belong to the different groups of east and west.

Just remember that directions are more important than locations. As long as you sit and sleep to one of your good directions, you are practising positive Feng Shui.

Living in a home in which the house trigram is not favourable to your personal Gua number is not a disaster. This does not mean that you will not enjoy good feng shui and that everything you do will be downhill from now on. It merely suggests that you may only enjoy about 70% of the good qi of the property.

Watch out for the annual afflictions

As you know, energies are in a constant state of transformation and for this reason we notice that our well-being differs from one year to another. What causes this? There are several answers to this but one basic explanation is the annual afflictions.

No matter how auspicious a palace (location) may be, if it is affected by an annual affliction, you will see subtle changes in the wellbeing of the household during the year especially if the annual afflictions happen to affect active palaces such as the front door, the main bedroom, the living room or a teenager’s room.

These afflictions are The Five Yellow, The Three Killings and Tai Sui. Their influences can cause obstacles, illnesses, difficulties and disharmony.

Below is a general guideline on how to apply Eight Mansions to your everyday life.

Try your utmost to sit facing one of your good directions according to your personal Gua number.

Depending on the issues you wish to improve, sleep with your head pointing to the respective good directions. Sheng Chi for prosperity, Tien Yi for health, Yan Nien for relationship and Fu Wei for harmony and self development. Fu Wei is the direction younger children should face as it harbours growth energy which will benefit them. Generally speaking, you are doing well as long as you face one of the personal good directions.

Be aware of the locations of the annual afflictions. The Five Yellows can be traced by the annual flying stars. Five Yellow is located at the central palace in 2004 and will move onto occupy the northwest palace in 2005.

I have written an article previously on The Three Killings and Tai Sui and you can follow this link for reference to their locations: threekillings

The above methods are only a part of the Eight House system of Feng Shui. Eight House Feng Shui consists of many advanced and sophisticated methods.

There are other more potent systems of Feng Shui that require the keen observations of the land structure that surround your home, how to analyse the quality of the energy that is around you and how it may affect you. This requires an understanding of the quality of energy in a given space at a given time. There are also formulae devoted exclusively to the flow of water called the ‘Water Dragon Classic’.

As you can see, these are particular formulae which are extremely technical. With this mind you will see that Eight House Feng Shui does not play an exclusive role in analysing the quality of Feng Shui in your property. Eight House Feng Shui is only one of the many aspects of a Feng Shui analysis of a property.